I'm Sorry For Being Creepy

Hi guys. I woke up today and my roommate told me that I probably have sleep apnea and that I also sleep with my eyes open. The things you learn. Here's what our conversation sounded like this morning.

One + One = FUN

So. Sophomore year of college and I've started my Early Field Experience. Look at this! I get a name badge! Yeah! It's kind of faded because I accidentally put it through the washing machine, but on the bright side I guess that means that I do my laundry, right? ;)

Starting on April Fool's Day I've had the opportunity to head down the road to a nearby Mankato elementary school and help out from 8-10am. I'm going every Tuesday and Thursday until May 1st. While I eventually hope to teach third or fourth grade, kindergarten is showing itself to actually be more fun than I expected.

Ok, yes. Five year olds are adorable. But in the past, the thought of having to keep 25+ snotty nosed youngsters in check has given me a headache (well, not really a headache. A virtual headache?) When I learned that I would be helping out in not fourth grade...not second grade...but kindergarten, my excitement level went down a notch. My misconceptions started popping up: They can't read. They're not well-behaved. They run screaming all over the place. They're so young! How can I teach them??

But...I like it. Yes. They are indeed snotty-nosed. They tattle on one another. They fake their reading so I can't actually tell if they can read or not. Yet...there's something endearing about that age.

One thing I've worried about is how I am going to manage to teach kids that don't understand simple math. However, I've noticed that in a young age like kindergarten, kids can learn things without knowing they're learning them! Here's some creative ways!

--Attendance Addition: Count the number of boys, count the number of girls. How many "friends" are in class today?
--Alphabet Association: Going around the circle and saying one thing that starts with a particular letter. It really gets them to think.
--Musical Memorization: Some people have a high musical intelligence and music can speak to them. It's also been proven that music aids memorization. They're  learning fun songs about our country by singing one a day after the Pledge of Allegiance.

Just some thoughts as I prepare for my future career. Oh and by the way! I passed my basic skills MTLEs!  (teacher tests) 3 tests down, 6 more to go!! (I think? Maybe 5.) ;)

Madelaine

More Than You Could Ever Know

"Marriages don't end because someone forgot to put the toilet seat down. Do people say they end because someone forgot to put the toilet seat down? Yeah, but that's not the real reason. They end because the communication was lost, there's stress, nothings going right and then- the kicker. He forgot to put the toilet seat down. And the marriage is just done."

I like this quote from my Interpersonal Communication professor the other day. Not because my marriage is ending, because, uh...that would be weird since I'm not married or dating, but because it actually kind of illustrates my life the past week. Bear with me through the rant.

For starters, I didn't get enough sleep. That's honestly probably what caused it all. We started talking about failing relationships in IPC and all I could think of was how I seem to be growing apart from my friends (I'm not really) which made my eyes begin to water/half cry in the middle of class. Then came honors auditions, which didn't go so well as I had hoped. Later, I opened my mailbox and found that I was not accepted as an RA, oh and by the way. I had YET ANOTHER late night, the blood moon WASN'T EVEN COOL and I DIDN'T DO ANY HOMEWORK. 

And then, just for the kicker, I didn't make it into Honors. 

Needless to say, I was a nervous and emotional wreck. My life basically was the marriage-situation from earlier, where I blamed the whole thing on honors. Was that it? No, it was the entire day's accumulation of events, but I just broke down and cried.

But then something beautiful happened. No, I didn't get word that they had made a horrid mistake and I was actually an RA. I didn't have my essays postponed, but I did get this in the mail, and honestly, that made all the difference.

No one could have known that all of this was piling up on top of me. They couldn't have known that it was the absolute perfect time for that note. But it was. So, I urge you friends, commit a random act of kindness sometime. You never know just how meaningful it can be to a person. 

God bless you.

Church

It's said that you never realize how important something is to you until it's taken away.

Today, my other-non Lutheran friend and I decided to be Lutheran for a day because Bethel Baptist treats Palm Sunday like every other Sunday. There's no palms, and the lesson isn't sculpted around Jesus' triumphal entry. Well, I slept through my alarm, only to wake up an hour later to my roommate's alarm. Other than totally standing-up my friend, it wasn't that bad, because there are about 50,000 other Lutheran churches to choose from in Mankato (slight exaggeration).

UNTIL I remembered that--oops. I have to work at 11:30. So I couldn't go to any other 10:30 or 10:45 church service. And then...maybe it was just me being tired, but I almost started crying with the prospect of not being able to go to church. I mean...I've never had church taken away from me.

So, I decided to go with my last resort: ONLINE church
I scanned it beforehand, and it appeared to be a good church. Here's what Calvary Chapels believe (NOT CALVINIST.) http://christianity.about.com/od/Calvary-Chapel/a/Calvary-Chapel-Beliefs.htm

So I'm doing a live-tweet of the service. Except, not on Twitter. Enjoy?

Opens with praise music. Typical. 

Some mash-up of In Christ Alone and "woah oh oh" to make it just a little more cool.

Wait only three songs??

Oops he's praying brb

Oh hey that was a good prayer. 

What even is this.

Ok dude. I am done with this. I'm finding a new church. 

I headed over to Fourth Baptist's radio station (AM 1030 WCTS) and their service was just about to start. Handbells were playing the prelude. Ahhh....it's like home. Ok guys, I'm actually gonna listen to this one. TTFN ;)

(But seriously, listening to online church is rrrrrrreeeeaalllllly distracting.)

How Gray is our Ga

Modern Worship.
Aaaaaand I digress.

But not really, because I'm choosing to write a whole blog post on this.

Because, honestly? How hard is it to write a worship song these days? I mean, here's a tutorial on how to write one in less than 5 minutes:

Being Sunday, I thought it fitting to post about worship. Here in Mankato I attend a Baptist church that has multiple services. Two with contemporary songs, and one with traditional, which is the one I go to. Unfortunately, they stuck the Bible fellowship/Sunday school hour right over the traditional. Hmph.

The traditional service includes a lot of hymn singing, but the other two all use modern worship songs: the kind that can be heard on the radio.

Half the time I hear a modern worship song on the radio, I've got no idea if it's talking about God or a girlfriend. I mean for goodness sake, have you heard the Christian Mingle theme-song? "I want to fall in love with you" etc.? Well, guess what! It's actually about God. Not your future spouse. Call me crazy for thinking this, but a song about God should be completely different from one about significant other. It's a different kind of love, ya know?

Let's compare some lyrics...

"Hold Me" by Jamie Grace

I've had a long day, I just wanna relax

Don't have time for my friends, no time to chit-chat
Problems at my job, wonderin' what to do
I know I should be working but I'm thinking of you and
Just when I feel this crazy world is gonna bring me down
That's when your smile comes around

(Rest of the lyrics here)

Ok. I get it. So God is our friend...but this song mentions ONE God thing the entire song. There is ONE mention of "Lord". Take that out, replace it with a guy's name, and voila! Totally new song.  I mean, heck. Look at these lyrics:

How Deep Is Your Love 

I believe in you
You know the door to my very soul
You're the light in my deepest darkest hour
You're my saviour when I fall
And you may not think
I care for you
When you know down inside
That I really do
And it's me you need to show
How Deep Is Your Love

How deep is your love, How deep is your love
I really need to learn
'Cause we're living in a world of fools
Breaking us down

About God? Nope. This song by the Bee Gees was #1 for three weeks in 1971.

Why do we do this? Are we afraid that people are going to hear our worship music and judge us so we just keep it as un-God as possible? Do people write these songs because they're rebelling against anything that sounds remotely similar to the hymn generation of their parents? Who knows.

And then there's the songs that I can't even tell what the words are.  Listen to "How Great Is Our God" THERE ARE NO T'S. EVAR. (hence the title of this post) (although, great song, lyrics-wise).

Here's the thing though. Some songs are actually really scriptural and really convicting. I'm not at all against all of today's worship songs. I do occasionally enjoy singing a "modern worship" song (ya know, one of those hand-raising ones!) There's something really nice about singing "Hallelujah" or "I'm lost without you" over and over again. Hymns have a lot of great doctrine, but often times they're missing the worship portion--and shouldn't part of a church service be worshiping the one who created us?

"God of Wonders"

Early in the morning

I will celebrate the light

And as I stumble through the darkness

I will call Your name by night

God of wonders, beyond our galaxy

You are holy, holy

The universe declares Your majesty

You are holy, holy

Hallelujah to the Lord of Heaven and Earth! 

Yeah, it's not the same as a hymn....but the times change. It's possible to have just as much doctrine in a contemporary song as there is in a hymn. I've also had people condemn my newer (hymn) music because it's newer, so it obviously can't be as right as the hymns of old. I'm sorry. But I'm just going to leave this here.

My Jesus fair, was pierced by thorns,

By thorns grown from the fall.

thus He who gave the curse was torn

To end that curse for all.

Chorus: O love divine, O matchless grace -

That God should die for men!

With joyful grief I lift my praise,

Abhorring all my sin,

Adoring only Him.

My Jesus meek, was scorned by men,

By men in blasphemy,

"Father, forgive their senseless sin!" 

He prayed, for them, for me.

(Chorus)

My Jesus kind, was torn by nails, 

By nails of cruel men.

And to His cross, as grace prevailed, 

God pinned my wretched sin.

(Chorus)

My Jesus pure, was crushed by God,

By God, in judgment just.

The Father grieved, yet turned His rod

On Christ, made sin for us.

(Chorus)

My Jesus strong, shall come to reign,

To reign in majesty - 

The Lamb arose, and death is slain,

Lord, come in victory!

(Chorus)

So please. Don't condemn my music just because it's in the "praise and worship" category. Certainly don't condemn all praise and worship music. There's some undoctrinal stuff, but there's also some really great songs! Look at the lyrics first...

And I'm gonna go out on a limb here (and probably get shot by everyone at this school) and say that sometimes, it's okay to throw a contemporary song into a church service. GASP.